Doubts raised over speed of UN troop deployment

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THE UN was close last night to raising 15,000 peacekeepers to police southern Lebanon, but doubts remained over how quickly the first units could be deployed, and what their role would be.

Sizeable pledges of troops were made at a meeting of 49 potential contributors at the UN headquarters in New York. “We’re almost there,” Thomas Matussek, Germany’s UN Ambassador, said.

Mark Malloch Brown, the UN’s British No 2, hoped to deploy an advance party of at least 3,500 peacekeepers to Lebanon within ten days. The entire force should be deployed by November 4, a UN general said.